A New Sort of Giant Squid
by Karartegirl99
Summary: Dib follows Zim to the sunken city of R'lyeh. Oneshot.


There weren't many places nearby where one could obtain occult reading material, but one of the agents had pointed Dib towards an old antique bookstore in the more questionable part of the city. He stood outside the decaying building, triple-checking the address with the one written on the scrap of paper in his hands. The store didn't seem open, or even inhabited. Someone had boarded up all the windows, and when he tried the door it seemed that that same someone had tried to hot-glue it shut. He forced it open and was met by a cloud of dust that smelled neither organic nor inorganic. It was like foreign spices in some aspects, but it also smelled like ancient paper and dust, and overall the smell made him feel both hungry and nauseous.

Inside it was dark and gloomy, with only a few stray strands of light seeping in through the cracks in the boarded windows. Empty bookshelves were arranged in a miniature labyrinth, and in the center was a pedestal that held the only book in the entire building. Its cover was filthy black, but when Dib brushed it off he found that beneath the dust was brilliant leather. The title, written in once golden thread, read: _An English Translation of the Latin Copy of the Necronomicon as Held by the British Museum. _He didn't know what use he had for a book with "necro" in the title, but he figured it was at least worth the read. It was heavier than expected, and he had to carry it home with both hands.

When he got home he began to read. It was too tedious, and in the end he locked the book in his closet, intending to read it eventually.

It was three months later that Zim found it. He was bored, so he did what he always did when he was bored: go through Dib's things. Zim didn't read the title, but when he opened to an illustration of a giant space-mollusk, he quickly stuffed the book in his PAK for later analysis.

The sound of footsteps in the hall caused him to look up. Dib was standing in the doorway, arms crossed. "What are you doing in my room?"

"Espionage," said Zim, waving one of Dib's socks around for emphasis.

"Out." Dib pointed towards the door, and Zim scurried out of the house.

Dib did not fail to notice when Zim's cruiser took flight an hour later. In fact, he had anticipated it and was able to follow immediately in Tak's ship. Zim didn't notice due to the fact that he was too busy reading directions, and he had to land several times and check the coordinates. After a several minutes he was simply circling the same spot in the southern Pacific ocean, and Dib watched with amused confusion. At last, Zim seemed to make up his mind. He submerged his ship underwater, and Dib did the same.

Underwater it was dark as pitch, and Dib pressed a button that turned on head beams. Up ahead, Zim's ship sank out of sight, and Dib descended further, praying that the ship could take the pressure. With a hideous scraping sound the runner landed on the ocean floor. The head beams flickered off.

Dib became acutely aware of his own labored breathing. The only light came from the control of the dashboard, and the ship was refusing to move. Beginning to panic, he opened up a communications panel. "Zim, can you hear me?"

"Dib?" came the reply. A video screen opened, showing Zim's barely-lit face. "Where are you?"

"Underwater," he said. "Near where you are, I think. My ship's broken."

"Yours too?" Zim looked both relieved and discomforted. "I thought I'd just broken down."

"What are you doing here?"

"This book told me to come to these coordinates," answered Zim, holding up the Necronomicon. It was open to a page with an illustration of an odd looking statue. "It also said to sacrifice several goats, but I skipped that part."

"You're taking advice from a mysterious book you stole from my room? Do you even think ahead? We're underwater! What good could come of this?"

"An alliance. With C...Ca..." Zim checked the book. "Cathoola-hoop."

Dib sighed. "Let's concentrate on getting out of this, okay? Whatever you just said isn't a real thing."

"It _is _real," whined Zim, pointing frantically at the illustration. "Cathoola-hoop will be freed by his followers and will smite all."

"How are you gonna free this thing if our ships can't move?"

"_Space suit,_" said Zim, shifting his position so that Dib could see the suit he was wearing.

Dib sighed and looked around the cockpit for his own space suit. Zim had already ejected from his ship and was off killing fish somewhere.

In his search for his suit, he also found an irken flashlight, apparently water-proof. He opened the cockpit and floated off, shining the flashlight all over for a sign of Zim or Zim's ship. The beam landed on a statue almost identical to the illustration Zim had shown him. It seemed to mark the start of a sunken path, as a weed-grown marble road lead onward. Off to the sides were stony remains carven with hieroglyphs beyond the likes of man, and ahead was a large rotten temple, on the door of which Zim was currently banging. Dib was quite unnerved now, and he grabbed Zim by the shoulder and motioned that he should be quiet.

The door was shaking. They imagined that they heard the resonance of a high-pitched screech, and at once they both turn and swam desperately towards their respective ships. For a moment, Dib looked back, and what he saw made him freeze. Zim had to drag him away, and Dib was still in shock while Zim jumpstarted the Voot cruiser and piloted them to the surface.


End file.
